Insurance

Expect the Unexpected

“This group maintains an active litigation practice and makes an impression
in several important fields including . . . insurance coverage. . . .
Clients are pleased with the ‘technologically savvy lawyers’ who‘react quickly and consistently produce good results.’ ”

—Chambers USA

As natural disasters and financial instability punctuates the news throughout the world, the critical role played by insurance companies has been in the spotlight. Today, the challenges for the insurance industry are more pronounced than in years past. Scale, regulatory pressures, and financial turmoil confront U.S. life companies, which have hit bumps in the road and have been forced into regulatory supervision, rehabilitation, or liquidation.

Blank Rome has represented insurance companies, reinsurers, brokers, insureds, and regulators across the country in matters ranging from the anticipated to the unexpected. The two major prongs of Blank Rome’s insurance practice are corporate/regulatory and litigation.

Our corporate/regulatory practice encompasses everything from successfully completing five rounds of venture / private equity funding for a start-up Internet-based insurance company that ultimately went public, to a $1.5 billion sponsored demutualization/merger for a well known Fortune 500 insurance company. We also keep an eye on cutting-edge developments and are now advising our insurance clients how to deal with new anti–money laundering programs, including the filing of suspicious activity reports (SARs) and related Sarbanes-Oxley implications.

The breadth of our corporate/regulatory insurance practice includes the following:

private placements, IPOs, and add-on offerings of equity and debt

joint venture and partnering transactions

advising boards of directors and audit committees with regard to Sarbanes-Oxley and other corporate governance issues

assisting publicly held and private companies to evaluate errors-and-omissions, and directors’ and officers’ liability insurance coverage

Blank Rome Government Relations, an affiliate of Blank Rome LLP, is positioned to provide assistance to clients in connection with matters affecting the industry, including legislation seeking to establish a scheme of federal laws which would regulate insurance companies.

Since June 2001, Blank Rome has worked on the largest property and casualty insolvency in United States history, serving as the lead outside counsel to the rehabilitator/liquidator of Reliance Insurance Company.

Handled the first Pennsylvania insurance demutualization under the Pennsylvania demutualization statute.

Handled an important case of first impression, challenging the constitutionality of the Pennsylvania mutual-to-stock conversion statute.

Nationwide insurance company subsidiary, in connection with a $1.5 billion sponsored demutualization and merger with a national insurance company.

National healthcare insurance company as litigation and coverage counsel with respect to large, complex, managed-care errors-and-omissions coverage disputes.

Coverage and bad-faith litigation on behalf of life-and-property and casualty insurers, as well as on behalf of policyholders, across all insurance lines, including directors’ and officers’, professional liability, general-partner liability, managed-care professional liability, CGL, and many other areas.

Litigation on behalf of policyholder against insurer for failure to defend policyholder in patent litigation.

Litigation on behalf of policyholder against insurer for failure to fully reimburse policyholder for costs of defense of SEC investigation and class-action litigation.

Litigation on behalf of policyholder against insurer for failure to fully reimburse policyholder for fire-damage claim.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

Blank Rome believes strongly that most disputes can be resolved without the burden of a trial. Our commitment to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) helps to minimize the time, expense, and public exposure associated with litigation. Blank Rome offers five former judges who assist all of our lawyers in ADR, from mediation to arbitration.

Experienced Attorneys, Recognized in Their Fields

Our attorneys’ strong business and financial acumen, coupled with years of high-level experience, enable them to be creative problem-solvers, especially when the stakes are high. In the area of insurance coverage litigation, Chambers USA describes the Philadelphia office of Blank Rome as “best known for its enviable insurance litigation practice. It regularly represents both insurers and policyholders and has also carved out an insurance insolvency niche practice.” Several of our attorneys have first-hand regulatory experience as former attorneys of the Securities and Exchange Commission.